If you’re home on Wednesday evening (as you should be!) I hope you’ll tune in to a livestream event I’m doing with Amy Jo Burns, author of the memoir Cinderland and the novel Shiner, which comes out on May 5 from Riverhead Books and is one of my most anticipated reads of the year. (The first sentence: “Making good moonshine isn’t that different from telling a good story, and no one tells a story like a woman.”)

Amy Jo and I have been discussing the ins and outs of the writing and publishing process over monthly lunches for the past five years, and we’re excited to continue the conversation in this free online event presented by Princeton Public Library and Labyrinth Books. It starts at 7:30pm eastern time on April 15. For more information and to register for the event, please click here.

P.S. Our wonderful local bookstore, Labyrinth Books, is offering a 10% discount and free shipping on phone orders for this event, so please call them at (609) 497-1600 ext. 1 to get your copy of Shiner (and, if you don’t have it yet or need a few extra copies for birthday parties, baby showers, and Mother’s Day, Love, Sophia on the Moon). Thank you!

And speaking of the roles creative friendships play in our creative lives: I have a new piece in the May issue of The Writer magazine (out now) called Eviscerating Envy, about ways to deal with professional jealousy. I don’t know if any of our feelings or worries from The Before are still relevant, but Rooga says it makes a nice blanket. You can judge it for yourself here.